Open data best practice guideline
Purpose
The purpose of this Open data best practice guideline is to equip Queensland Government agencies with the directions required to effectively monitor and manage open data. This guideline outlines best practices that aim to enhance government transparency, foster economic stimulation, and ultimately serve the best interests of the people of Queensland. It defines objectives and methodologies for the proactive release of open data, ensuring alignment with the Queensland Government Open data policy statement and existing legislative requirements.
Principles
This guideline supports the Queensland Government’s commitment to transparency, accountability, and public trust as stated in the Queensland Government Open data policy statement (PDF, 184KB). This guideline overarching principle is:
Data transparency with limited exceptions - Information collected or generated by the Queensland Government through the application of public resources is held in trust for the people of Queensland. The principle of stewardship underpins the government's approach, committing to proactive release of information for public benefit, except where justified reasons for withholding exist.
This guideline supports the 'push' model approach for the proactive release of government information and should be read in conjunction with existing legislation relating to the disclosure and protection of government-held information, including the Right to Information Act 2009 and the Information Privacy Act 2009 as well as existing policy, including the Queensland Government Information access and use policy (IS33) and Information and cyber security policy (IS18).
In implementing this guideline, agencies must meet information protection obligations, including safeguarding personal information in accordance with the Information Privacy Act 2009, and observing statute-specific secrecy and confidentiality obligations.
Benefits
The Queensland Government supports the responsible release of open data to:
- enhance government performance review
- generate benefits for Queensland and its people in the following areas: financial, economic, public knowledge, personal, and environmental.
The Queensland Government, through effective open data publishing, supports the people of Queensland being well-informed about government effectiveness. This aims to increase government accountability and improve government policy and practice, resulting in positive downstream effects for the community.
By following this guideline, Queensland Government agencies will contribute to a culture of transparency and data-driven innovation, thereby delivering significant benefits to the Queensland community through improved government services, informed policy-making, and valuable economic opportunities.
Objectives
The Queensland Government will pursue the following objectives, each supporting the achievement of the benefits stated in this guideline:
- regularly measure core open data outcomes
- use effective outcome measures to guide expected open data outputs*
- support sufficient and appropriate publication of expected open data outputs*
- routinely undertake actions towards maintaining or improving open data outcomes.
* Note: An open data output is Queensland Government data or meaningful and relevant metadata that is publicly released, or in other words, made available to all potential data consumers through a readily accessible platform, such as data.qld.gov.au.
Best practice actions – Open Data Office (ODO)
The ODO within the Department of Customer Services, Open Data and Small and Family Business (CDSB) serves as the central authority responsible for championing and facilitating open data practices across the Queensland Government. The ODO drives strategies and activities designed to enhance open data initiatives and outcomes. To support positive open best practices, the ODO will undertake the below actions. These actions are seen as pillars that support the realisation of the intent conveyed in the Queensland Government open data policy statement.
The ODO will execute the following actions:
Regularly measure core open data outcomes
- develop and maintain appropriate expectations for transparency through the publishing of open data by agencies.
- measure and report annually to the Director General, CDSB
- develop and maintain effective measures of the financial and personal use value derived by users of Queensland Government open data
- encourage users to share with the Queensland Government their uses of open data, derived products, and outcomes.
Use effective outcome measures to guide expected open data outputs
- informed by the measurement of Queensland Government open data outcomes, provide advice to agencies regarding the publishing outputs that best support transparency and user value.
Support sufficient and appropriate publication of expected open data outputs
- provide leadership, coordination, and infrastructure to support the open data publishing activities of agencies and engagement with users of open data
- measure and report annually to the Director General of the CDSB, each agency’s key open data publication, engagement and quality measures and any recommendations for improvement.
Routinely undertake actions towards maintaining or improving open data outcomes
- make published open data more approachable and more understandable for Queenslanders, ensuring valuable information can reach the widest possible audience.
Best practice actions – agencies
To ensure that open data practices achieve the objectives set out in this guideline, Queensland Government agencies should:
Regularly measure core open data outcomes
- collaboratively determine and maintain acceptable baselines and targets for publishing that enables government performance review.
Use effective outcome measures to guide expected open data outputs
- informed by advice based on the measurement of outcomes, publish open data that best supports government performance review and user value.
Support sufficient and appropriate publication of expected open data outputs
Allocate and keep filled, an official open data representative role responsible for the performance of the following minimum functions:
- act as an enquiry contact point for open data for the general public
- serve as a representative on applicable working groups and committees
- fulfil an administrative role and coordination of agency functions relevant to data.qld.gov.au.
Establish and monitor a dedicated group email address for written communication on matters pertaining to open data.
From the beginning of data planning activities for new projects, consider open data as an output and prioritise approval and publishing of meaningful resultant open data.
Establish a service delivery statement (SDS) measure for open data (in conjunction with the ODO), aligned with the collective open data performance measure of the department with whole of government responsibility for open data.
- for consistent and maximised discoverability, ensure that all data made available for download on an agency’s public-facing website or accessible through public API is cross-published in a format suitable for data to data.qld.gov.au
- maintain the completeness, accuracy and currency of dataset metadata, or appropriately document any departures
- contribute to and publish data compliant with established publishing best practice and standards.
Routinely undertake actions towards maintaining or improving open data outcomes
- proactively identify sensitive datasets holding public interest value and test potential for de-identification and publishing, including risks of re-identification
- publish de-identified sensitive datasets, maintaining the privacy of individuals whilst also providing transparency and/or value to users
- assist and provide timely responses to users who engage through data.qld.gov.au.
Standards and other guidelines
- data usability rating
- open data portal publishing guide
- open data portal user guide – non-publishing functions
- API guide
- resource formatting
- metadata and publishing templates
- dataset de-identification and risk assessment
- open data infrastructure architecture (as of 1 August 2023, available upon request)
- open data performance criteria (under development)
- annual performance reporting template (under development)
- data visualisation creation guideline (under development)